a bleeding purple utah jazz blog

Off-Day Odds and Ends, Part 1

One. After watching a John Stockton video I’d uploaded, a Jazz fan in Serbia messaged me wanting to know whether Nada Stockton (nee Stepovich) had Serbian roots. I was googling based on what I knew about her family (some of you probably know that her dad, Mike Stepovich, was the last territorial governor of Alaska) and came across this. Mike Stepovich was on the cover of the June 9, 1958 issue of Time Magazine.

Excerpt from the article (I’m guessing articles in Time’s archives were scanned which explains the parts that don’t make sense):

Up on Squaw Hill, in the three-story, columned gubernatorial mansion, Mike pursues a rollicking, split-second family life. The eight little ‘itches have to be undressed in assembly-line fashion for their showers; the mansion’s third floor is blocked off (“We’re always losing Dominic,” says Matilda); Band-aids, next to food and clothing, are the big expense, what with the children falling downstairs or sliding too fast down the bannisters, or falling off the gubernatorial totem pole that stands outside. After dinner and a session of TV-watching, church-going Roman Catholic Mike sings out: “Prayers, everyone, let’s say our prayers.” He and the youngsters then kneel in a cluster about a big armchair before they are paraded off to bed.

In the morning Mike swings out of bed at 6:30, goes down the hall to look in on the children, methodically counts heads as he passes from room to room. Then, midst the morning chatter and leggy tumbling of this brood, the Governor of Alaska hoists his three youngest children to the stately hardwood table on which, 91 years earlier, U.S. Secretary of State William Seward proudly signed the historic Alaska purchase with Russia (for $7,200,000) and, one by one, proceeds to diaper them.

The article was written when there were eight kids in the family, but according to Wikipedia, the Stepovichs capped out at 13. Nada and her twin sister, Laura, were 3rd and 4th youngest.

Two.Big Al on the Deron trade: I understand how this go. I could be traded by tonight. This is the way this business is, but it’s kind of tough. Two people that I was excited to come to Utah for, two out of three–the fans the third one–but Jerry, Coach Sloan, and DWill, they both gone. It’s kind of tough, but at the same time it’s still the best job in the world. We still got each other. We got a great point guard coming in tomorrow…so you know, we still got a chance to do something special here and make a run. (KFAN)

Four. [Are there any guys on the team you’re close with?] Devin Harris: Pretty much all new faces. Like I said, Raja I played against a lot so he’s probably the one I relate to probably the most…Kirilenko has been a pest to me for years; he’s been helpful. Like I said, rest of the guys just brand new so I’m just trying to do my best to incorporate myself. (tribjazz twitvid)

Five. Story told by a fan who attended the Pistons game:

I was at the Pistons/Jazz game last night, sitting near the visitors tunnel. There were a few kids there priming for autographs and whatnot. One kid had a Georgia Tech hat and Favors signed it. Then after the game, he came over and told the kid he was going to give him his shoes! Being that he was just traded though, he didn’t have backups, so he had an equipment guy get this kid’s address, so he can mail him a pair of game-worn shoes. Pretty impressive. (SLC Dunk)